2.6.17

Making Waves About the G20

Yesterday, the weather was sunny and mild with a light breeze: perfect conditions for making a few waves about the upcoming G20 events in Berlin and Hamburg.

The activist group Top Berlin organized a boat protest, "They Call It Partnership, We Call It Hell", to help raise public awareness about the hypocrisy behind two major G20 events that are due to take place in Germany this summer: the African Partnership conference happening in Berlin on June 12-13th, and the G20 conference happening in Hamburg on July 7-8th.

Thankfully, cruising from Rummelsburger Bucht to Goerlitzer Park along the Spree's placid waters wasn't hellish at all. It was almost a trip to heaven, with smooth sailing almost all the way. Things got choppy at one point as a couple of police boats pulled up alongside us, but apparently they were just there to make we were safe and sound. I guess some pirates had been sighted in the area...?

Not all boat trips can happen under such favourable circumstances though, as the ever-rising death toll from the Mediterranean and Tripoli coasts reminds us. This year, a record number of refugees have already drowned whilst fleeing war-torn areas of the Middle East and impoverished parts of Africa, by boat. By the end of April, the Guardian reported that more than 1000 people had already lost their lives to those seas - a record number.

"During the time of slavery, many people drowned in the sea because they
were thrown overboard. Or because they jumped themselves to escape the
hell of the slave ship and the plantation. Today they are drowning
during the attempt to reach Europe in crowded boats... looking for a safe,
better or simply different life."

International trade bodies like the G20 claim that they want to create a truly global economy, and the sorts of trade agreements that they favour do ensure that money and goods move from producers (e.g. the developing nations) to suppliers (e.g. developed nations) without too many regulatory or financial barriers getting in the way. On the other hand, though, many of the corporate interests that are represented by the G20 also make a killing (sometimes literally) by installing physical barriers to stop people moving from those same developing nations to the West. Money can move freely, in other words, but people can't. The freedom that the G20 talks about sounds great until you realize it's only freedom to create a modern kind of feudal system, where the workers are forced to stay in the fields and earn low wages, making cheap goods for their distant overlords. That system includes you and me whether we like it or not and, as the old adage says, 'If you're not a part of the solution, you're part of the problem.'

It's a subject that touches an especially raw nerve in Germany. The legal system here seems like it's still heavily biased
toward protecting property, rather than people; for instance, it's
illegal to touch someone else's garbage but, until last year, there was
no law against sexually assaulting a woman on the street. How's that for
a stark contrast?

And, at least two guys that I know
here have been arrested for throwing a plastic drink bottle at a car
after its driver attempted to run them over at a demo. So apparently,
attacking a car riles up the authorities more than the idea of vehicular
homicide does. Absurd situations like this are a constant bone of
contention here in Germany, so it's understandable that the left wants
to stop them being exported to the rest of the world, too. And exporting them is, arguably, the G20's whole raison d'etre.

All
this makes the G20s decision to hold two of its annual meet-ups in
Germany even more intriguing. Is the organization waving a red rag at
the bull of the European left... or is it waving a white flag at all the
activists who have criticized it for being too inaccessible, in the
past? The only way to find out is to get involved!

The next boat tour will be on June 10th at 11 a.m. More info is available on this link

The German language call to action for all G20 event can be found here

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...is NOT a fashion blogger! I write about underground music, activism, social media rights.
Other publications that I have written for: OpenDemocracy, Urban Challenger, Siegesaeule, Alternative Berlin and Sensanostra.

About Unscene

...is NOT a fashion blogger! I write about underground music, activism, social media rights.
Other publications that I have written for: OpenDemocracy, Urban Challenger, Siegesaeule, Alternative Berlin and Sensanostra.